Tracey Crouch quits as sports minister in protest at gambling machine clampdown delay

Sports minister Tracey Crouch has quit the government in protest at a delay on reducing the maximum stake on betting machines dubbed the “crack cocaine” of gambling.

Crouch had spearheaded a drive to reduced the maximum stake on Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBT) from £100 to £2.

The government announced in May it backed the proposal, with the reform expected to be implemented in April 2019.

Monday’s Budget revealed the change had been postponed until October, prompting criticism from campaigners and Tory MPs.

Despite rumours of a u-turn, chief secretary to the treasury Liz Truss only committed to further discussions on the matter when quizzed about it on the Commons on Thursday afternoon.

In her resignation letter to Theresa May, Crouch said: "Your personal support earlier this year for a reduction in the stake of fixed odds betting terminals was incredibly welcome and a real reflection of your ambitions set out in your very first speech on the steps of Downing Street to support vulnerable people agains the power of big business.

"I cannot begin to explain how many people got in touch to congratulate government on its stance, including addicts, their families, and also, sadly, those who have been left behind after loved ones took their own lives as a consequence of addiction.

"Unfortunately, implementation of these changes are now being delayed until October 2019 due to commitments made by others to those with registered interests."

According to figures from the Gambling Commission in 2016, almost 14 per cent of people who use FOBTs are problem gamblers.

In one ten-month period, users lost £1,000 on more than 230,000 occasions, contributing to a £1.82billion haul for bookmakers from FOBTs for 2016.

Appearing in the Commons on Thursday, culture secretary Jeremy Wright insisted there had not been a delay, as the government had planned to bring in the reduction in April 2020. He referenced a Commons motion from June which stated: “That this House…notes with equal concern that the stake is not due to be reduced until April 2020”.

He added: "I have heard language twisted to various uses in this place, but the idea that a move from April 2020 to October 2019 is a delay is going a little far. It is not a delay."

Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith called on the government to rethink its plans, saying: “It is not too late, for the sake of those people whose families and lives have been destroyed and there may yet be more, many more to follow them.

"I urge my right honourable friend to think again and to bring forward the date so that we may end this scourge.”

Sarah Wollaston, chair of the health select committee, added: “The tragedy of lives lost to suicide has to be our absolute priority here and there is good evidence and I would urge him to think again and bring this in.”